I don't know

             “I don’t know.”

This sentence is the one that makes me at once disappointed (due to the failure of the expectation) and somewhat relieved (due to the frankness of the person). Also, this sentence is the one that my father loves. Although it seems like a plain, colorless saying, it imposes the essence of my father’s personality.

My father who seems like an artful businessman is a plain-spoken person. He never pretends to know math problems that I asked. He never bluffs about the time when he was “my age”. He never lies when he breaks wind. Instead of all those common lies, he responds, “Actually, I don’t know what it is” or “At that time, I wasn’t that smart” or “Sorry. It was me”. Astonished at his outspokenness about himself, I can soon be relieved and also be honest to him.

However, his frankness sometimes becomes a dagger when it points at me.

I often play Haegum, a Korean traditional instrument, in home. And one day, when my father heard some off-pitch, he teased me, saying that I should practice Haegum more. At first, I thought he was just joking. However, when I asked him about that later, he said, “I really mean it. Girl, you got to improve a lot!” I had to admit that I made some off-pitch, but encountering with direct criticism was, well, shocking.

His candidness didn’t stop; it continued on my performance in academic subjects. He has never scolded me for bad performances: he has just been frank about my academic ability. When I asked him whether it would be fine to study physics rather than history, he said

“Isn’t it tough to study among the so-called wiz kids? They are science-oriented while you are….humanity-oriented.”

Having hoped for the positive opinion, I was very disappointed and hurt from his comment. Although he later approved the potential I have in studying physics, at that time, it was hard to discover the reality.

But I have to admit that while living with my father, I naturally got to learn how to be honest to myself and others. Unconsciously, like my father has done, I started to say and act in a candid way. Whenever I am not sure about some complex math problems, I simply admit that I don’t know and that I would study more about them. Whenever I mess up a test, I frankly say I messed up. Whenever I have to criticize others, I anyway do some criticism-constructive criticism, I believe.

 

             And among those influences I got, the most valuable lesson that I got is the way of dealing with challenge and failure. When facing a challenge, I started to think “Well, I just have to operate what I know.” And when facing a failure, I began to think “It is natural to be ignorant about something that I don’t know. I should just learn this and never forget.” This attitude learned from my father has been a lot of help when cheering myself up, especially from academic hardships.

             Nowadays, my father is still straightforward. He openly lauds on what I did well, criticizes on what I made mistakes, and openly speaks about his lights and shades. Always the same. However, I have changed a lot: from the one who thinks mistakes to be shameful to the one who thinks mistakes to be natural. And right now, I am trying hard to make something that I don’t know into something that I know well.

A fall is not everlasting

           “Okay. You should count one, two, three and jump into the sky. If you linger, it would be harder for you to jump in.”

           After counting one, two, three, I dived into the sky. No, I didn’t commit a suicide. I had a simple rope clung to my body. Yes, I did a bungee jump!

           It was a last June. My friend and I went to Inje Bungee Jump center. Without any fear, my friend and I simply went up to the bungee jump tower. It wasn’t until later that I became afraid about the fact that I had to dive into the sky. The only thing I had was a rope clung to my body.

           When I stepped forward and saw the scenery under my feet, I became numb. I couldn’t move. But when I counted one, two, three according to the direction of the assistant, I automatically dived into the sky.

I was literally falling. The scenery-the river, the mountain, the road, etc-was approaching to me. I thought I would die, seriously. However, at a certain moment, I felt something that “saved” me from falling, the rope. I was relieved. Although I had to experience further bouncing, I rather enjoyed it, as I knew the rope would save me from constant falling. After landing on the ground, I found myself appreciating the thrill of bungee jump.

Even after doing the bungee jump, I didn’t realize that this simple challenge I did can teach me an important life lesson. After the bungee jump, I had to face a lot of zigzags in KMLA life. Sometimes I had to face a shameful score on the test sheet, a trouble with a close friend, and a tight schedule. In those situations, I was discouraged, thinking that this would never end. However, after two months, when I had a trouble with a close friend, I remembered the bungee jump experience. While thinking about it, I soon realized something evident: the “fall” is not everlasting. Everybody experiences the fall. The fall is dismal, painful, and horrible. But there’s always a rope that stops one’s constant fall. One rises as much as one falls!

After understanding the lesson from bungee jump, I have tried to think “This, too, shall pass away soon” when facing troubles. With that bit of hope, I have been able to keep my chin up; bearing most of the problems smoothly. And sure, there have been many “rises” that I experienced after “falls”: miraculous A on the subject, joyful travel with my family, etc.

          After all, bungee jump was not just a test for courage. Although it seemed like just an interesting experience at that time, after time passed, bungee jump-that simple play with a rope-thought me a valuable lesson-a “fall” would stop at some moment. And keeping that lesson in my mind, I am trying to enjoy the “bungee jumping” in my life, dreaming for the moment of appreciation for my challenge.

creative writing assignment!

6. Phone Tag. Write a fairly long, complicated phone conversation overheard by someone in the room. All three people—the listener in the room, the caller, and the person on the other end of the line—are involved with each other in some way (not necessarily romantically). Let us hear the other end of the conversation, without actually hearing it. This means you will be giving us only one side of a conversation, so you will have to work to make the side we’re hearing intriguing and capable of carrying a story. The listener in the room can guess what the person on the other end of the line is saying, but try to keep this guessing to a minimum, and make sure this guesswork is done with integrity—well after the unheard speaker has spoken. 600 words.

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Dear Diary,

Today, I had a blind date. My co-worker Brad, who is a nice guy, arranged a date, saying that the man would be perfect for me: sensitive and careful. Well, believing what Brad said, I went to the Caffe Dene for date.

On the way to café, I got to watch TV news about those who sell human flesh. According to that, in Bundang, where I live, there are several people who sell human flesh. It is said that about 2 stores were caught for that, there may be more stores selling human flesh secretly. I was shocked, but I wasn’t that concerned about the fact: I’m not related to it.

The man was fairly handsome. However, he seemed very nervous and pale for the whole date. It was uncomfortable, but well, it might have been the first date for him, I thought.

We went to Caffe Dene, had a cup of coffee, talked about everyday life stuffs. His name is Alex. He also lives in Bundang and he likes to hike, go fishing. I wanted to ask him about his job, but I decided to wait until he says about his job.

Suddenly, a phone rang-it was his. He asked, “May I?” in a pale, shivering voice. I, of course, had to agree.

“Hello?”, he answered-no, almost whispered-the phone.

“Oh yes, yes. Why?”

“Really? Umm…..that’s a pity. I wanted the thing to be fresh and alive.”

Suddenly, I remembered the news that I saw today. Linking that news with this handsome (but pale...) guy seems nonsense, but I couldn’t stop doing that. Thinking that hearing only one side is okay, I kept overhearing the phone conversation of Alex.

“Then, when can you bring that fresh meat?”

………..Meat? No, it would be a normal meat like pig or cow. Not a human flesh, I wished.

“Okay. You can bring the meat in next week. But remember, it’s not just a meat. It’s not like a normal meat like a pork or beef.”

“Oh! And what are you going to do with the bones? It’s hard to separate the bones and the flesh.”

Is the meat human flesh? Or something else? I couldn’t think of anything other than human flesh. The image of Alex separating the bones from the corpse was vivid enough for me to be absent-minded. I felt dizzy.

“If you’re busy, I should do it. You’d better learn how to do it.”

I had to get out of this date. What should I do? Just scream and run away?

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

What should I do? What do I have to do?

Alex hung up the phone, turning back to me.

“Sorry, it was just from my workplace. So….what was I saying?”

I, with a reddened face, said,

“Ha...ha....Umm....I….I have to go to the bathroom.”

“O...kay. Why not?"

“Bye!”

Right after saying that, I almost ran away, getting out of the coffee shop as soon as possible. Will I call him later? Of course not! I should be thankful to my instinct to notice a prospective killer.

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Today, I met the strangest woman I saw in my life. As it was a blind date, it is reasonable to be the worst date. I had a major cold today first of all. But more importantly, the woman, named Jen, was not that attractive: full of wrinkles in her face and a mousy attitude. I didn’t like her much, but thinking of the effort my friend Brad put on arranging this date, I tried to be nice to her. The only excusable act that I did was doing a phone call in front of her. But, it was quite short I think. Only 4 minutes? Besides, I tried to whisper. Anyway, it was a call from my clumsy assistant. He was supposed to order the fishes for sushi, but due to his laziness, he failed to order it on time. It was a major mistake, but as I had the woman in the front, I had to be gentle. After hanging up the phone call, however, the woman just ran away from me. Going to the bathroom? Huh, I could have done better than that.

Why? Why did she do that? I don’t know. But I actually felt kind of relieved about her leaving me.

One thing for sure: I should never do blind date.

Reflection on "Fish Cheeks"

             Well, first of all, I really enjoyed this story. This story was able to express its idea effectively in one page. And what I liked most about the story is the way of writing her experience: showing.

             Definitely, this story is about confessing. It talks about the embarrassing (but after all valuable) experience of a young Chinese girl. However, in this story, only few sentences revealed her feelings explicitly (ex) “Dinner threw me deeper into despair”, “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas?”, “I wanted to disappear” are some of the few sentences that explicitly show the narrator’s feeling.) The essay consists of only one or two sentences of explanation and a bunch of sentences of depiction of the situation.

             But ironically, by simply showing what she experienced, Amy Tan was able to impress the readers far more powerfully than by explaining what she felt indirectly. By imagining the situation the narrator described, readers can share the narrator’s experience indirectly. Mere description can make readers get “persuaded” (so to speak) more naturally than explicit explanation. As this story is a story which the narrator confesses about the lesson she realized from her youth experience, it would be important for the writer to appeal her confession to the readers. In that perspective, Amy Tan was successful in writing this story.

             To sum up, I was definitely attracted to this story and I think the reason why I was fascinated is that this story used the method of “showing” rather than “telling”. I should employ this method when writing a story or a college essay as far as I can.

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Jingyeong: I just simply organized the summary at the first part of my reflection, because I couldn’t think of much broader ideas. But reading your reflection, I guess you got several interesting points to be detailed. What I don’t understand is the goal of the author. I mean, persuading has its goal in it. Then, what is the goal of the author?

Chonghyun Ahn: I do agree that her indirect description of what she felt “showed” than “tell” about what happened. Good luck on your story and college essay.

Rhee Ji Yoon: I agree that showing is usually more important than telling. I am in the Creative writing class taught by Mr. Garrioch, and I realized that the stories that are less complicated but more descriptive are more powerful than the ones that are sophisticated. “Little Prince” is a very easy story, but you can learn a lot while reading it. (+Do you sympathize more with the Little Prince or the pilot?)

Topics that I like to write:)

This is part of the assignment for the creative writing!

Topics that I like?


6. Phone Tag. Write a fairly long, complicated phone conversation overheard by someone in the room. All three people—the listener in the room, the caller, and the person on the other end of the line—are involved with each other in some way (not necessarily romantically). Let us hear the other end of the conversation, without actually hearing it. This means you will be giving us only one side of a conversation, so you will have to work to make the side we’re hearing intriguing and capable of carrying a story. The listener in the room can guess what the person on the other end of the line is saying, but try to keep this guessing to a minimum, and make sure this guesswork is done with integrity—well after the unheard speaker has spoken. 600 words.

--> Situation that I want to make: Jen, an ordinary career woman, does a blind date with a guy named Alex. While dating, Alex gets a phone call and converses with someone. Jen, overhearing the conversation, starts to feel frightened as the conversation goes on. (ex) Alex saying "Hey, remember, I only want a fresh meat. Fresh and alive". And when hearing that, Jen remembers the recent news she saw, about the human flesh.) Jen, after Alex ends the phone conversation, makes an excuse and runs away. But actually, Alex was a sushi cook. Alex wonders why Jen runs away, thinking that Jen is freaky.

Reflection on "Sarah Cole: A type of love story"

             The story “Sarah Cole: A type of Love story” is a typical confessional story. It honestly reveals about the relationship the narrator had with the woman Sarah Cole.

             But when reading the story, I somewhat felt uncomfortable about the predisposed idea of characters, that the ugly people tend to be more substantial and more “real”. In the story, the handsome narrator thought Sarah was different from other folly women who are vapid. However, as time passes, the narrator realizes that Sarah is not that different from the others in essence: she wants to boast her handsome boyfriend to others. Disappointed at the reality, the narrator acts cruel to her, in order to kill the relationship for their benefits.

             And all of these sequences in the story show that the old idea of “good, kind ugly people” is wrong. The narrator certainly had this prejudice towards ugly people and this resulted in another scar from the relationship between him and Sarah.

             This myth would have come from the ordinary people’s envy. Of course it is often true that the ugly people tend to be kind and humane. However, considering the counterexamples, it is plausible that those who are ordinary would have created the myth because they want to complement the inferior aspect they feel from those who are handsome and pretty.

             To sum up, I felt uncomfortable about the old myth related to ugly people and thus felt interesting about how the story disapproves that myth. It can be seen that the narrator is confessing about the misunderstanding he had about the ugly people.

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Jin Gyeong: I pretty don’t understand the last two paragraphs. Do people really regard ugly people good and kind? (Or, is that can be called myth?) I think there is a stereotype about ugly people that they will always grumble and would have lower self-confidence. As you can see in the animations or movies, enemies (the evils) are depicted ugly (or extremely beautiful??) What do you think about my opinion? J

Chonghyun Ahn: Although I don’t agree on the notion that your interpretation of “hot” boyfriend, I certainly find your criticism on the “old myth” on the function between ugliness and truthfulness very interesting. Why do we have such myths? Is it because that is often true in real life? Or is it because of common men’s envy?

Hyunseok Lee: Sometimes I wonder about “reverse discrimination” in appearances. Handsome or attractive people often regarded as ill-tempered ones, while lots of people expect unattractive people to be kind and cool. If we don’t like the fact that people should not be judged based on exterior appearances, reverse discrimination also should be removed.

Reflection of "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep"

                  Reading a science fiction is at once fascinating and depressing. It’s amazing to imagine how technology would develop while it’s depressing to somehow acknowledge that even in the future, the selfishness of human will never change.

             “Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep” is the novella that is fascinating and depressing. And it portrayed an interesting model of the future: humans and machines will become similar.

             This model is deeply related to the irony presented in the novella. In the story, Androids, who are supposed to be distinct (usually in an inferior way by human’s standards), are so similar to humans (both physically and mentally) that it is hard to know whether the one is Android or not. On the other side, humans in the story are becoming alike to the machines in that they try to program their mind status like the computers adjusting their state with programming.

This interesting phenomenon, humans becoming machine-like and machines becoming human-like, can be explained with the two factors: human’s desire to replicate themselves and to be superior to others. These seemingly contradicting desires of humans are actually same in an essence; selfishness. Because humans are self-interested, they want to make another version of them while willing to be superior to their replicas. And when linking the selfishness(people have) to the outcome of that impulse, it’s easy to understand the irony in the story: people’s desire to discriminate themselves with replicas simply resulted in the opposite situation, humans and machines becoming similar.

             Overall, I thought that the story was effective in depicting a dystopian society with the irony related to human’s desire.

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Jin Gyeong: You wrote on topic which exactly points out the main idea of the novella and what Mr. Menard talked in today’s class. Your analysis about the motivation of human making Androids was interesting. And I especially liked the expression “humans becoming machine-like, machines becoming human-like”. I think this short phrase really describes what’s going on now, and what will be like in future. How about adding more comparison between the Androids and humans before mentioning the ironies?

Rhee Ji Yoon: “Ironies” that you have mentioned at the start of second (or is it third?) paragraph are not mentioned and explained fully yet, right? (lack of timeL)

A piece of narrative: for American literature

           Julie was sitting in a classroom, writing something passionately in her notebook. It was a force diagram of a simple pendulum motion. She marked gravity, tension, centripetal forces, other things related to mechanics.

           She didn’t understand. She didn’t know why she got 10 points off for solving up the problem in a correct, Newtonian way. Although her solution was different from that of other students (who simply copied the solution suggested in the textbook, she thought), she was confident about her own independent solution. However, when she went to Mr. Jones’ office, she was surprised to see a large, red slash in her answer sheet.

           She was bewildered and angered at the result. She had always thought that Mr. Jones was not that logical (not only in physics but also in the whole thought process), but she never thought that he would give her such a big insult. Feeling necessary for explaining her perspective, she asked him,

“Mr. Jones, actually, I cannot understand why my solution is wrong.”

Mr. Jones saw her in a condescending way (at least it’s what she thought) and gave her a chance of explaining what she thought is right. She confidently presented her solution. It was clear and brief. She thought her solution could win over Mr. Jones’ “opinion”.

After hearing all the solution she presented, Mr. Jones started to question doubts on her explanation. At first, she was confident about her solution, but as few minutes passed, she started to feel doubt on her solution. However, not wanting to acknowledge her ignorance, she asked for some time to reorganize her thoughts about the problem.

And she was trying to mark the forces correctly in the diagram. After organizing her thoughts, she stood up, and walked to the Mr. Jones’ office, with her face filled with shame.

“Well… I have to say that I’m wrong. I think I was confused of the basic concept of force.”

“Yeah, that happens. Actually, I liked your passion and confidence on your own idea.”

Although she found that reply unexpected, she just kept listening to what Mr. Jones said.

“You’d better enhance the physics concept you have. Julie, are you humanity-oriented?”

“Yes, I am humanity-oriented.”

“Well…..although you may not further study physics, physics is obviously the interesting subject to study. You know, everything is physics. From miniscule atoms to enormous galaxies.”

After a little pause, Mr. Jones said,

“Anyway, it was good to do a discussion with you. I hope to see you in an honored-physics-class. Have a nice vacation!”

And this was what altered Julie's academic interest and future career. 

Creative writing assignment #2: Dialogue

           Elisa had never shared her room with anybody as long as she remembered. But as she attended university far from her house, it became inevitable for her to stay in a dorm with a roommate. Her first roommate in her life was Samantha, who always held a nice smile on her face. (This can be the reason so many guys feel affection towards her, and also the reason Elisa felt more betrayed by her friend Sam.) But with her adorable appearance, Sam started to bring her boyfriends into her room very frequently. It was the first semester of Elisa’s university life, and she decided lump Sam and wait one semester for a new roommate. However, it soon turned out that freshmen were to stay in the same room for a year unless under special occasions. So Elisa went up to the Dean describing her situation, but the Dean simply insisted that a roommate’s love life was not a very unique problem and that Elisa had to handle it herself. Elisa came to stay with Sam for one more semester. But when Sam brought a new guy named Samuel only a day after the semester had started, Elisa found it hard to tolerate any longer. She went out the room, contemplating hard the best resolution.

Elisa waited Samuel to come out of her room. When he came out, Elisa greeted Samuel naturally. After a few talk, Samuel tried to say goodbye by saying “Again, Sorry for interrupting you. You must have been uncomfortable to leave the room.” However, Elisa intentionally elongated the conversation by saying “That’s okay. It’s not the first time for me to do it.” Then, in a continued conversation, Elisa implicitly revealed how her roommate Samantha is a flirt. And in accordance with Elisa’s derogatory comments about Samantha, Samuel got upset and disappointed at Samantha. However, soon, Samuel found out that there were some contradictions in Elisa’s comments. (we didn’t decide what the contradictions are) Because of that, Samuel and Elisa fought with each other. The dialogue part would start from the part where Samuel apologized Elisa to the part where Samuel and Elisa argued with each other.

Reflection on "The conversion of the Jews"

           One of the most basic works that should be done in understanding something is to understand the surroundings. In the case of understanding literature, one should consider the context of the individual texts. And in the case of understanding individual, one should consider the individual’s interaction with other individuals or the society that the individual is in. The relationship between an individual and a society is mutual; the society is formed by the individuals and the individuals are formed by the society. And the story “The conversion of the Jews” shows an interesting interaction between an individual and a society. The story is set in the exclusive Jewish society in New York. The society revolves around the words of Rabbi Binder. However, Oscar (also called as Ozzie) challenges the orthodox that exists in the Jewish society. Oscar eventually succeeds to make others (especially Rabbi Binder) acknowledge his radical ideas, but he soon commits a suicide instead of complying to the order of Rabbi and his mother.

           While reading the story, I got to think about my identity in Korean society. Although it sounds snobby, I am in a high position for the high school students to have. I am a student in KMLA, a school whose students are praised as “genius” for the past school life. I am planning to study abroad, having a freedom to explore what I want to study. And most of all, I have a gifted environment to actualize my goals: my parents’ cheer and economical room for assisting in the process. These conditions cannot be achieved easily for majority of students. Obviously, I am in a top position in my age and I am happy with my place in the community.

           However, I still think that my current status can always change, and try to think about the basic problem that the society has. While watching news, I sometimes get frustrated about the prejudice exists on the foreign laborer and often feel satisfied about the fair decision of the judges to the legal case. Although I should admit that I am not that active in expressing my opinion, I am a progressive rather than a conservative.

           Some might think that my attitude is not that appropriate in terms of changing the society. They might say that the radical personality of Ozzie would be more helpful in influencing the society. However, personally, I think that the aggressive, conspicuously rebellious act like that of Ozzie can be very ephemeral but the soft but incessant act, like the act of changing the people’s perspective gradually with the critical and unprejudiced media, is more helpful in changing the world.

The one who has had many titles-The house mother

The one who has had many titles-Interview with the house mother

11b5

Soho Shim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             Curly hair set with a hair band. Looking tenacious, but sometimes looking cheerful and tender. Those expressions refer to the house mother (dorm parent), Joo young Park in KMLA. She is the one who makes us students nervous in cleaning inspection time. She is the one who makes us manage our lives autonomously. She is the one who makes us smile, be cheered up from mother-like advices.

             Although the house mother Park is very near to us, nobody exactly knows about her: her past life, her personality, and everything about her. Thus, I felt the necessity to know about a person who lives close to us and acts like our mothers. After doing a brief, informal interview with her, I was able to know some aspects about her. 

            Although she is now a house mother in KMLA, Park was called as various titles. All of those titles are deeply related to her personality, orderliness. When she was student, she was defined by the word “modest”. She didn’t like to violate the rules or regulations given to her (although she still knew how to express her own opinions). Her fondness of orderliness surely affected her future career. After seeing the TV drama “A war brother”, she was attracted to the dignified and temperate manner of the commander. As the normal military academies at that time didn’t educate the women soldiers, it seemed like there is no way for her to be a woman soldier. However, an opportunity to achieve her dream came when a poster about the recruitment of women soldiers was attached on the university bulletin board. She applied to the army, and after a harsh test, she became the woman soldier. Tough trainings and the man-focused facilities were hard for her to adjust to the life of woman soldier, but still, she learned a lot and gained a lot.

             “I think that the army has somewhat magical power,” she said, “No matter how a person was in the past, after 2 years in an army, the one becomes polite, self-regulating, and dignified. This is the reason why I wanted to join the army and the fact that I felt in the life of soldier.”

             After spending 9 years in the army, in 2002, Park was suggested to be the house mother in KMLA. Although she was in a high position in the army, she decided to get a title “the house mother”.

             “I have never regretted my choice to be the house mother”, said Park. “Although some people might think that managing all the problems students make would be laborious, I actually think that this job fits to me. I like to stay in one place, I like to stay up all night, and most of all, I like to talk with students.” With smile, she said, “Students are my energizer.”

             Now, as we students all know, Park is another mother of the students. She often gives admonition but sometimes gives advice. She feels content about her current job, saying that she feels like she is playing with her students, not working as a house mother. When asked about her future, with her neat smile, she said that she would do some volunteer work for others. As a proper student, as a vigorous soldier, and as a warm-hearted house mother, Park has done a lot of things in her life, contenting in any situation she has faced. Personally, I think she would be able to achieve whatever she wants, with her exactness, vitality, and humaneness.

Reflection on "The Lottery" and various stuffs

           Throughout history, no matter how it was substantiated, the concept of human sacrifice has been present. In the past, it appeared as forms like human in an altar or witch-hunt. When it comes to modern, the form of human sacrifice has become more “diluted” and less conspicuous, but more severe. The “gossiping” about the celebrities can be a human sacrifice done nowadays.

           The justification for this savage tendency has been issued throughout the time. Like people in the story “The lottery”, some try to justify this act as “a tradition”. Without any apparent reason for doing that certain act, people just follow the ill-conceited path given to them.

           While some simply follow the path, others try to justify the act as “public good”. People who support this act (maybe some politicians who want to maintain their system) think that by “giving” up the victim’s freedom or rights, public can “take” what they want, common happiness or entertainment. This justification appears in the movie “Hunger Game”, which is about a despotic state which makes twelve youths participate in a deadly (literally) game in order to provide the public an entertainment, and to maintain its dictatorship successfully.

           Both of the reasons might seem plausible, but whatever the justification is, it is evident that the cruel “human sacrifice” has been committed for centuries, and it still exists nowadays. Even if the tendency of sacrificing an individual is innate to human, people should definitely restrain that tendency, in order to achieve a real “progress”.
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Yeji Park: The last sentence of your introductory paragraph informed about "gossips", so I thought that you'd write someting about the video about Britney Spears we say today but it was not :( "The lottery" or "Hunger Game" as far as I know, is not relted to gossiping, if you want to write about gossip. I think you can delete that last sentence from intro and make a whole new paragraph about gossip after you finish explaining "The lottery" and "Hunger Game". Anyway, good job :)

Inhee Ho: I totally agree with you of the sacrifice being less conspicuous but more severe! I really thought your analysis was impressive :) I see your effort to put numerous sources into your essay (ex) the Britney video we watched) but all htese sources seem to just appear and disappear soon. I think it would be great if you elaborate more on each sources you use and make your point more solid. Anyway, I enjoyed yours :)

Hyejoon Lee: I also thought about justification! And I also believe that the existence of a justification or a reason should not be the excuse for killing or hurting one another so harshly. Because then, it is no longer a justification but merely an excuse.

Yoonju Chung: I agree with a point that "gossiping" is an another way of stoning one person to death. There had been so many celebrities in Korea who were stifled by so many rumors :( Also, your analysis of "justification" was very impressive. We habitually attempted to justify our "gossiping" by calling it as "a trend". In the modern society, "gossiping" is embedded in our daily lives so deeply that it is possible to call it as a tradition: a tradition that must be abolished. Overall, I really liked your idea but it could be better if you create more firm relationships between examples (such as video we watched during the class and Hunger Game) and your main idea!

Jane Park: I agree with you on the point that people are basically making justifications for this wrong tendency. Also I agree with the fact that some are supressing others to maintain their dictatorship. However, I hope you think of more profound motivations for people to follow the illegal traditions.

Chonghyun Ahn: I think that in order for there to be a concrete support on the concept of human sacrifice, there has to be a higher entity that needs sacrifice. Maybe you could explain what it is.

Goofy is not that goofy!

Name: Goofy

Appearance: Dark mustaches

Personality: funny

Age: 17

Unique Trait: has a dragon tattoo on his back

Environment: small high school

Problem: bad eyesight

<-My Characters :)

    
       People say love is blind. My friends would agree to this statement when thinking about my love. Yes, I’m in love.

LOVE

           He has a dark mustache, which highlights him and reveals his ethnical identity as an Italian. He lives next door, he goes to same high school with me, and he plays cello in “Welton High school Orchestra”. He also participates in a varsity swimming team, astonishing people with his dragon tattoo on his back. (He said that he simply got a dragon tattoo because he didn’t have good eyesight to distinguish dragon with tiger. But it seemed like he was satisfied with his dragon tattoo covering up his back.)
           He is as funny as his name, Goofy. (You would be laughing at this phase, I know that. Well obviously, “Goofy” is not a word that sounds smart.) Goofy and his friends are famous for leading a flash mob in a cafeteria or volunteering for the advertisement model for the famous Chinese restaurant (The humorous thing is that none of them were Chinese. Only Goofy had a dragon tattoo which would be the most “chinish” trait.) He is quite different from me: He is “the famous” one while I am “a normal” one and he participates a lot of club activities while I just have a small chat with my friends a bit in a school.
           But still, he is the one who I can have a casual talk with and who always try to boost me up when I have a long face. We first knew each other when we were assigned to do science project together. And for the whole semester, until the due date for the project, we have become good friends, rather than becoming typical acquiantances. After discovering that we lived next door, we became closer and closer.
           And today, I went out with Goofy: watching a movie. Although it's kind of sad that Goofy might just think it as a friend-to-friend meeting, but...who cares? Still, I went out with him!
           The 'date' itself was just normal. After school, we went to the cinema, watching a comedy movie. We had a pizza after that, and got back to each home. We talked about the everyday life, a science experiment we are working on, television celebrities, sports, and a bunch of things. Goofy was humorous enough to make our 'date' jovial and lively. Touching his dark, Italian-like mustache, he brought up a lot of subjects amazingly smooth and fluent.
           Before scattering, Goofy said that he really enjoyed the movie and all the other things. He tried to say something more, but he didn't. What would this hesitation mean? Does that mean that he also likes me, more than just friends? Well...I hope so. :)
           Anyway, I gotta sleep. I have a world history class tomorrow.

To. Diary

Reflection on "A way you'll never be" and "Big Two-hearted River"

           After experiencing hardships or a shock, it is natural for people to seek for their own therapy. Some of them seek for drugs for their temporal pleasure and escape from reality while others try to overcome their hardships in a more “pure” way (like doing an intellectual work like painting or writing or going back to the nature). However, no matter what choices people make for a solution, they want their scar to be fully recovered, without any traces.

           Two stories of Hemingway, “A way you’ll never be” and “Big Two-hearted River”, which are connected in the context, express the scar the main character gained and the process of curing it. In the story “A way you’ll never be”, the gruesome atmosphere in the town where the war had occurred was depicted well. After that, in the story “Big Two-hearted River”, Hemingway insists that the “full recovery” cannot happen sometimes. Nick, who experienced the horrible war, walked away from the burnt town and went to the riverside in order to cure his scar obtained from the shock in the war. His situation and his desire to cure his pain are well-depicted in the part where Nick observes the black grasshoppers, wondering how long they would stay that way.

           In the nature, Nick works hard to overcome his pain “fully”. Although experiencing a series of failure, he kept trying to catch a “big trout”, which can be interpreted as a tool for full-recovery. However, after all, Nick satisfied on a medium sized trout. 

           Actually, I was surprised about the conclusion of this story because I thought Hemingway would have ended the story in a manly way. But still, I really like this ending. This ending is more realistic, still being hopeful to those who want to cure their scar.

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Yeji: Understand the time limit. So, next time when I see your revised version, hope that you added detailed explanation why “grasshoppers” is symbolizing curing treatment, etc. And it would be more interesting if you try to define what “full-recovery” is and what “medium-recovery” is. For instance, the latter can be defined as ‘remembering’ the war memories, but try to remember less..? I’m not sure. But well, you will be able to make better definition than mine lol Good job!

Sol Kim: Nice view about “total recovery” because it seems to make sense throughout the whole story. I partly agree with your example, and I don’t think the story was surprising or something unlike Hemingway because the failure Nick kept experiencing was also part of the world that worked against him. But Nick did not surrender; he caught grasshoppers and he caught two fish. Anyway, to say about your writing… I could see you were running out of time because there was a big lack of explanation. What is the “full recovery”? Why did you like the ending still? What does it mean to be “manly”? Nice work, still, because I liked your point. You just need to focus on that point more and elaborate, I think.

Reflection to "The garden lodge"

            It is always interesting to read works of modernist authors’ literature. As they were created in the 20^th century, which is usually called as the Age of Anxiety, modernist literatures are about how people react when they fall into materialistic lives. Many modernist literatures depict the self-destruction of those who became materialistic: all the guiltiness and regrets from what they have done.

           However, what is interesting about “The garden lodge” is that the main character, Caroline is not “destroyed” by her materialistic life, the affair with Raymond d'Esquerre. In the story, when Harold suggested her to tear down the lodge (where she had an affair with Raymond d'Esquerre), she accepted his suggestion. (As it can be seen in the story, tearing down the lodge is not just destroying the garden but also it means that her past is destroyed. It’s quite important for her.)

           Caroline accepted Harold’s suggestion, but when looking into the story, it is easy to figure out that though Caroline decided to let her past go, she had a hard time deciding to do it. She seemed quite daunted by the “magnificent” Raymond d'Esquerre.

…..And d'Esquerre was a man to reckon with. Caroline did not deceive herself now upon that score. She admitted it humbly enough, and since she had said good-by to him she had not been free for a moment from the sense of his formidable power. It formed the undercurrent of her consciousness; whatever she might be doing or thinking, it went on, involuntarily, like her breathing, sometimes welling up until suddenly she found herself suffocating. -quote

             I think her reaction is quite reasonable because being materialistic was not her innate personality. (She grew up in Brooklyn. That explains a lot.) As having an affair is kind of a deviation from what she experienced in the past, she definitely had difficulties dealing with it. After all, Caroline somewhat overcomes her dilemma by letting her affair go. This can be interpreted as Caroline accepting the materialistic life, which was common at that time, as a natural thing.
         Actually, while reading the story, Caroline reminded me the character "Jenny" in the drama "Gossip Girl". In the drama, Jenny at first was an innocent teenage girl from Brooklyn. When she first entered the materialistic elite world in Manhattan, like Caroline, she had a "culture shock", bewildered at the others' materialistic lives. However, soon Jenny accepted that lifestyle, and became the so-called "insider" in Manhattan. This process of adjustment is very similar to that appeared in "The garden lodge". 

           To sum up, from my point of view, “The garden lodge” depicts the relatively smooth process of a character accepting the different ideology.

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Hyejoon: I liked your idea that this story is about how a person accepts the change in ideology. However, other modernist novels are also about the changes; the difference between the others and this (I think at least) is the illustration of ‘how well’ the characters accept the change. Unlike many other typical modernist stories which seem to indicate that the change happens violently and inevitably brings destruction, this story suggests that it happens rather peacefully and fosters a more mature stage.

Haeuk Ko: Is tearing down the lodge same as destroying her past? I rather thought it was an act of putting a seal over her memories. Rather than ripping the memory into pieces and burning them so that no trace of them would be left in her mind, I viewed the action as a line she drew herself for the purpose of moving on to other things. Also I thought the opera was not a product of disturbed mind but a final act of cherishing her memories-to put an end to it.

Reflection of "A Dark Brown Dog"

           The relationship of human and his environment has always been the issue in numerous literatures. Some of the writers expressed the dominance of human over the nature while others tried to debunk it. And in the story “A Dark Brown Dog”, the power (or the dominance) of environment over human is well-depicted.

           The good example that can explain the claim can be a child. Children are usually said to be “innocent”. That is, children are less influenced by the environment (or social orders) than any other people. Although there is still a natural brute in children’s mind, it is usually hidden in the childhood, and the extent of the innate brute expressed is decided by the environment. The child in the story shows the example of the child affected by his surroundings. (No offense to lower-paid class but) Surely, lower class people are mostly prone to savageness. They didn’t have much opportunity to learn how to hide their savageness with a slip of ‘civilization’. And the insecurity in dealing with critical situations being transmitted from the parents, a child might have become much violent than he might have been under the educated parents. Although he loves his dog in the base, having a natural affection towards the animal, (“The child, crying softly, took his friend off to a ~”), he anyway displaced his ‘savageness’ and anger to his dog (“Sometimes, too, the child himself used to beat the dog”). These two contradicting behaviors of the child shows that even the child, who is known to be “innocent”, can be tainted with the environment.

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Seungwon: I literally never thought of the child as being innocent. I saw him for a miserable little prick that couldn’t be better than his good-for nothing father and ultimately shows his true colors. But you’re right. He does “love” the dog, or, to be more precise, “has an emotional attachment” to the dog (I don’t believe a child of his age is fully capable of feeling love). Maybe in that sense he still has an untainted shred of him.

Inhee: Wow I find so many different views today. J All these gives me the idea but at the same time sorta confuses meL

Anyway, your view of how ‘child’ was used in the story was interesting. Taking ‘naturalism’ into mind, I thought this ‘child’ somehow showed human’s basic nature of savage. Civilization in this sense can be just a way to hide this. But reading yours, I think it also makes sense that this child’s violence was the influence of his father. But I would have liked your writing more if you specified the reason why you thought this way. Father’s violence might be one way, but this does not sufficiently explain how can you eliminate (or just debunk) the possibility of this as a human nature. Anyway, I really enjoyed this!

Yeji: Interesting essay J

I think (though I’m not sure) what you’re trying to discuss is the “influence” of environment to mankind, rather than dominance. If I’m right, I think that you can develop your essay in this way: 1) specific case of human being influenced by the environment, 2) general human brute. 1) is of course the part you wrote about a boy, For the second part: well, as we discussed in today’s class, it is proved (or at least, naturalists seemed to prove) that there exists “potential violence” as a part of human nature. That is, when given the right situation-impoverishment and violent father in the boy’s case- humans can develop and exert their violent nature. You can give general example of World War, the chronological background of naturalism, when writing this part. Anyway, great job, and look forward to your revised version J